Biography
Hildegard Knef, also credited as Hildegarde Neff, was a German actress, singer and writer. Born in Ulm in 1925, she grew up in Berlin and began her career in post-war German cinema. Her early roles included Susanne Wallner in Wolfgang Staudte's The Murderers Are Among Us (1946), one of the first German films made after the Second World War.
Knef appeared in international productions from the early 1950s. She played Hilde in Anatole Litvak's Decision Before Dawn (1951) and had roles in Hollywood films such as The Snows of Kilimanjaro (1952). She achieved notable success on Broadway as Ninotchka in Cole Porter's musical Silk Stockings (1954–56), performing the role 675 times. Knef died in Berlin in 2002.
